One (expensive) recycling step forward, two garbage steps back

Wisconsin State Roundup

Wisconsin has one of the more aggressive recycling programs in
the nation, thanks to a recycling mandate passed in 1990. But state
taxpayers are paying handsomely for it and still failing to slow
the pace of waste tipping, or dumping, at its landfills, according
to an investigation by the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, citing
state and federal reports.

The investigation found that an average of $65 million in tax dollars
is spent annually to supplement more than 1,000 local recycling
programs that typically cover lessoften much lessthan
one-third of their costs through the sale of recycled materials.
One of the state's biggest waste haulers also reported that businesses
pay a similar amount to dispose of their recyclables.

An intent of the recycling law was to slow the fill rate at the
state's landfills. But while recycling kept 760,000 tons out of
landfills in 1999, out-of-state haulers dumped 1.4 millions tons
of garbage into state landfills, an increase of almost 500 percent
since 1995 and attributed to lower tipping fees in Wisconsin.